The Lost One
by scribblesandshowtunes
Summary: Will finds a mysterious girl in the forest and helps her find her identity.


The girl woke up with a start as a thousand thoughts rushed through her mind. "Where am I? How did I get here? What happened?" she was faintly aware of a constant throbbing in the back of her head and let out a small wimper of pain as she placed her hand on top of the bump already formed there. Slowly she began to become aware of her surroundings, one piece of the puzzle coming together at a time. She was in a place surrounded by trees… a forest she realized now. "Yes", she thought, "definitely a forest". Then another revelation hit her. It was dark and it was night. Suddenly she froze from fear. She started to panic and her knees started to shake. "Here I am," She though, "all alone in a dark forest. I don't know where I am. I don't even know who I am." She started to cry she felt one salty tear drop roll off her cheek after another, feeling entirely alone. She wept silently for while then finally exhausted from crying she dropped off back into a world of dreams where her forgotten memories danced in and out of her conciseness but whenever she tried to grasp them they simply danced through her fingertips just out of reach perhaps she thought, that would be the way it was forever.

Will was sitting by the empty fireplace, sipping his coffee and rummaging through letters. Though some of the letters bore coat of arms the majority were marked with a simple oak leaf design. As he did this he cast his mind back to the days of his apprenticeship, how many times had he sat here silently watching his master do just as he was doing now. Those times seemed so far away now with Halt moved out of the little cottage to live with his wife in their set of rooms for them in the castle Redmont. It seemed like only yesterday Halt had first taught him how to use a bow. He smiled ruefully at the memory of how he had rushed into action so quickly he had forgotten to put on an arm guard. He never found out what had happened to that arrow, as far as he could remember they had never actually found it. Before he even realized what he was doing he threw on his green and gray ranger cloak and ran outside to sattle up Tug. Tug a little taken aback by the sudden and hurried appearance of his master gave a low whinny in greeting. Will guiding the sure-footed ranger horse through the forest until he came to that same familiar clearing, a place of the past, who knew that at the time what seemed like an ordinary event would become such a prominent and joyful memory. It was then when he heard Tug give the warning call.

Snatched out of the past and hurriedly thrust into the present Will tensed. He had instinctivly notched an arrow and whispered a single command to Tug "Where." Tug angled his head toward Will's right and Will nodded and replied with "good boy." Silently he slipped from patch to patch of shade, his steps almost inaudible on the soft forest floor he finally froze in place as he heard a movement no more than a few meters away. He risked a short look from out behind the tree and was absolutely startled to see a young girl no more than 10 with dirty ragged clothes and dark brown hair with braids falling haphazardly across her face cautiously making her way through the forest. The girl looked in a new direction and now Will saw all the fear and worry that was portrayed on her features. He had to be careful not to startle her Will thought, she was obviously already jumpy enough and the last thing she needed was someone to suddenly appear next to her.

He silently ran back to tug and made sure to make as much noise as possible as so the girl would be sure to know someone was coming. Still by the time he made his way back to where he had last seen the girl she was nowhere to be seen. "Understandable" he thought to himself "perhaps it would be better if I just called for her."

"Hello!" Will cried out to the surrounding forest. Nothing answered except the echoes of his calls. "It's all right, I'm not going to hurt you, and I know you're around here somewhere. Who are you?"

"That's what I would like to know." Came the small voice from behind a tree.

Will turn his head immediately pinpointing her location to where he now saw the same frightened girl he had seen before. Will slowly dismounted Tug and took one tentative step forward while the girl watched him suspiciously. "What did you mean by that?" Will asked the girl.

"I mean that I have no idea who I am!" The girl tried to answer, but it just came out in an embarrassing flood of tears and whimpers. She watched the curious stranger come towards her with tear-filled eyes of his own and when he put his arms around her she was grateful to finally be able to cry into someone's shoulder, to feel just a bit more safe and not so alone anymore.

"I'm Will" the stranger said as he took a step back to look the girl in the eye. " So you really have no idea who you are?" he asked

The girl who no longer trusted her speech replied with a simple nod of her head.

"That's terrible. I'm so sorry. Is there anything that you do remember?" he asked now completely absorbed in the mystery that surrounded this girl. Again only a shake of her head was all she could manage. Suddenly Will relized that this girl was probably cold, hungry, and tired not to mention scared out of her wits. Besides Will thought that Halt would know what to do.


End file.
